


Steady, Beat

by sourink



Category: Free!
Genre: Asexual Nanase Haruka, Blood and Violence, M/M, Multi, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, SouMako + Ace Haru
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-16 05:26:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4612893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourink/pseuds/sourink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin is overseas for the Olympics when the outbreak takes Japan. He can only watch his hotel TV in horror as the news floods with real life nightmares. When he can finally return he dedicates himself to finding and helping his surviving friends and family. He moves in with the surviors, but when everyone flinches at loud noises and Haru sleeps with a knife the size of his forearm, Rin doesn't know how any of them are ever going to be <i>better.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Steady, Beat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin is overseas for the Olympics when the outbreak takes Japan. He can only watch his hotel TV in horror as the news floods with real life nightmares. When he can finally return he dedicates himself to finding and helping his surviving friends and family. He moves in with the surviors, but when everyone flinches at loud noises and Haru sleeps with a knife the size of his forearm, Rin doesn't know how any of them are ever going to be _better._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI this is a side project for me until I finish [tfytwy](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2475755/chapters/5491853) so I don't know how long it will be between updates, sorry! you can complain to me on [tumblr](http://paesour.tumblr.com) if you want u_u

“Oniichan, can't you just leave it alone?” Gou sounds exhausted, and for a minute Rin feels the guilt twist in his throat. It spreads and grows, joining the feeling in his gut that he's _not wrong_.

“I can't give up on them Gou. I'm sorry.” he says. He's being sincere, but he still can't look his sister in the eyes. She sighs, and Rin wishes it wasn't such a familiar sound.

“Rin-nii?” Ran's small voice freezes them both, and Rin puts on his best 'everything is okay' smile when he kneels down to her. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Just for a little bit, kiddo,” he says. Ran's eyes go wide and flash to Gou before she tangles Rin's shirt in her small hands.

“Don't go,” she says. Her voice sounds brittle but at least she isn't crying. Rin can never find the right thing to say when she starts crying.

“Hey, it'll be okay,” he says, petting her hair back with his hands. “I'll come back soon, and you can call me anytime okay?” Ran nods into his chest. Getting the mobile phones back online had been huge progress for Japan early in the recovery, and sometimes it was the only way he could convince anyone to let him continue his search.

“Come on Ran, let's go see if we can find that stray,” Gou says gently. Ran reluctantly lets go of Rin and leaves to find their coats. Rin watches her go. For what feels like the thousandth time since he's returned to Japan, he prays to anything that can listen that he's not wrong.

“I'm going to find them,” he says quietly.

“Don't you dare say something like that in front of her,” Gou hisses. Rin looks up to her and is met with an unfamiliar hostility. “You have no right to get her hopes up like that.”

“They're alive Gou. I _know_ they are,” he says. No one has heard from Makoto, Sousuke or Haru since the outbreak, but Rin knows his best friends are out there somewhere. If only he could get someone else to believe him.

Gou narrows her eyes at him and he holds her gaze, willing her to understand. They were alive, they _had_ to be. The moment drags before Gou sighs and looks away, fight far from over but put back on hold for the moment.

“You can't _know_ , oniichan, it doesn't work like that. I'm just trying to protect her,” she says. Rin gets back to his feet, adjusting the bag over his shoulder.

“I know. You've done a good job of it,” he says. Gou laughs bitterly and Rin can't help when his eyes linger on the jagged scar on her cheek.

“Fine. Go on your fool's errand, but be safe,” she says, still not looking at him. Rin swallows roughly and slowly wraps his arms around her. For a second she doesn't budge, tension high in her shoulders. But then she leans her head on his shoulder, and Rin exhales.

“I'm going to bring them home Gou.” Gou laughs again, but humors him by patting him on the back until he releases her.

“Just bring yourself home,” she says. Rin smiles down at her, but he thinks it isn't quite all there.

“Promise.”

****  
  


“Are you sure you want to do this? Don't you want to go look for your family first?” Rin asks. Ai bites his lip and looks straight ahead.

“I'll look for them later,” he says and Rin feels the soft spot of fondness for his teammate bloom in his chest. “Lets find yours first. Maybe they'll have the phones working by then?”

Rin smiles and knocks his shoulders with him, significantly easier now that they were nearly the same height. Ai flashes him a smile and Rin returns it.

“Thanks for always sticking with me, Ai,” he says. Ai flushes ever so slightly before facing away. They had been back in Japan for less than a day, and Ai hadn’t left his side.

“With everything that's happened, I don't think I could leave you alone,” he admits quietly. Rin's about to say something when someone in the crowd behind them screams, and panic erupts.

“Senpai!” Ai yells and grabs his hand, dragging him as he shoves his way through the crowds to the train. It's all Rin can do to keep up without running into someone. Most of the crowd around the station seems to have the same idea as Ai, and it's nearly a riot by the train station entrance. Somehow Ai shoves his way through and pulls Rin with him, and they're crowded in a corner of one of the train cars in minutes. They lean on each other and the rails to catch their breaths. Guards fight people off with batons and whistles so the doors can close, and Rin feels sick to his stomach when he watches them forcibly beat someone away from the doors. The crumpled form on the pavement gets smaller as the train starts to move, and Rin tries to rub the image out of his mind with the heels of his hands.

“Do you think... was that one of them?” Rin asks meekly. Japan had finally reopened it's borders, but it wasn't like they were completely clear of infected. It was a risk Rin was fully aware of, but he still hadn't actually seen one of them since he returned.

“I don't think so,” Ai shakes his head. “Someone probably just panicked.” Rin laughs despite himself.

“Panicking, huh? You should talk, what was that?” he asks. Ai smiles weakly at him. “Sorry.”

Rin shakes his head and stands up straight. Ai shifts so they can both watch out the window behind him just in time for them to catch sight of the city as they leave the tunnel. Rin barely recognizes it. Parts of Tokyo are completely wiped out, left with bare gaping wounds where there used to be buildings and life. He wonders how long it will be before they can put all the fires out. They pass a section close to the train lines covered in a long line of black bags, and Rin sucks in a breath when he sees feet sticking out of one.

Ai's hand finds his and curls around it, and the train picks up speed.

****  
  


It's still daylight when they get off the train in Iwatobi, but even in full sun there's no way Rin would have been able to reconcile his hometown with the ruins in front of him. More people get on the train than get off, and Rin doesn't miss the fact that no one seems comfortable making eye contact.

The little town is normally peaceful and quiet, but its a foreign feeling to walk through burned out buildings and abandoned cars with the muted calm for company. People walk in groups, and Rin sees more than one of them dragging something heavy and blunt with them. He tries to ignore the way red seems to stain everything.

They head to the community center, close enough to touch but somehow never coming in contact. Half of the big old building is burned down, but already people have set up tents and tables, and officials with name tags and clipboards wander around helping survivors. there’s a handwritten banner over one tent, and Rin swallows and heads towards it first, Ai never far behind.

The man who looks up at Rin when he reaches the table can’t be any older than them, but he smiles kindly at them and Rin can already see wrinkles in his face. _Survivor and Deceased Registry_ flaps lazily above them.

“Reporting or looking?” he asks. Rin looks to Ai and he shrugs.

“Both, I guess,” he answers. The man nods and picks out a form to slide across to them. _Name, age, hometown, next of kin-_ it asks pretty standard questions for survivors. Rin fills his out quietly while Ai does the same, but hesitates when he gets to the bottom half. It’s a legal notice, informing Rin in clinical unflinching terms that any deaths witnessed or caused of infected by himself or other non-infected were confidential and pardoned, with the exception that they were reported so the families affected could have their closure.

He signs the bottom and slides it back. He doesn’t look at the official when he glances over it.

"Do you want dead or living first?” Rin blinks at him and he continues. “Personally I’d go with dead first so you don’t get your hopes up too high.” The man nods towards two thick stacks of forms just like the one he’d just filled out, and Rin understands.

“That’s fine,” he says. The man hands him the thicker stack, and Rin takes it gingerly. The deceased forms were a little different, and most of them were half filled out at best. He reads the first page, then the second. By the fifth page, he feels a little like throwing up.

He decides to skim over the names only for the rest, and starts flipping through them, praying he doesn’t recognize any of the characters that could spell out his friend’s names. Or _Gou’s._

“I don’t see anyone,” Ai says cautiously, reading over Rin’s shoulder. Rin nods but doesn’t let it go to his head. Some of the pages only had rough descriptions, but there was no way everyone had survived.

“Can I look at the living list?” he asks. Other people have come up to the table while he was busy flipping through the deceased packet, but the official smiles and nods towards it so Rin carefully exchanges his for the living one.

This one wasn’t as depressing, except for how light it feels in his hands after the hefty deceased list. Names are printed clearly, kanji and kana, and Rin flips through it faster than the other. He’s halfway through it, and has only picked out a few names of acquaintances at best, people he knew solely because Iwatobi was a small town to start with.

_It’s alright, it hasn’t been long since the recovery started, this isn’t a complete list._ Thoughts trip over each other in his head as he gets nearer and nearer the end of the list, panic rising like bile in his gut. He should have seen _someone_ by now.

He gets to the last page of the packet, thanks the man and returns it. He walks away so quickly Ai has to jog a few steps to catch up.

“Where are you going? The map said this half of town hasn’t been cleared yet, we need to find somewhere for-”

_“Ai,”_ Rin says sharply. Ai falls quiet and Rin slows to a stop.

“Mom’s condo is in this half of town,” he says quietly. His hands tighten on the strap of his bag.

“Oh. Oh, _Rin,”_ Ai says weakly. Rin starts walking again, away from this conversation. He hadn’t seen any one’s name, this was the logical next step. No matter how his legs want to shake and collapse as he rounds the corner and the building comes into view, Rin keeps walking.

The building isn’t in great shape. The building next to it was charcoal and rubble, and it was clear the fire had leaped across the narrow alleyway onto his moms building. Most of it was still standing, but debris and a few abandoned cars littered the entry, and Rin and Ai stand and wonder how you even get inside the building.

Rin nods his head towards it, and Ai nods and follows him. The smell of burnt plastic and something uncomfortably similar to barbecue wafts around them in the breeze, accented by their shoes crunching in the gravel. It turns Rin’s stomach. It shouldn’t be like this. It should smell like wisteria and be filled with the sounds of kids playing in the park across the street, like it always did when Rin was growing up here.

“I don’t see a way in,” Ai says and it draws Rin out of his memories.

“Yeah, maybe if we go around,” he says, gesturing around the building. They have to go through the burned out alley, but Rin is sure any part of the building that was going to collapse already has, and he doesn’t pay it any mind when he makes the corner.

Something sharp and strong wraps itself around Rin’s ankle as he climbs over debris, and with a swift yank and a scream torn from his throat Rin is on the ground. The hand around his leg is pale, and Rin realizes in horror that _bone_ is showing in places where the flesh has fallen off. Ai is yelling and desperately pulling him the other way, but Rin’s heart is beating too loudly in his ears for him to understand the words. There was _something_ wedged under a slab of concrete from the demolished building, and it was dragging Rin to it. He kicks furiously at it, blood running cold when he can make out snatches of _teeth_ from the shadows. He watches the hand wrap tighter around his ankle, one of the nails peeling off into the fabric of his jeans and his throat goes dry.

From nowhere, an axe slams down through the arm of his attacker. As quick as the first strike, it raises and crushes back down again, this time severing the hand and freeing Rin, who flies backwards with such force he knocks Ai over and they both fall against the wall of his mother’s old building. Rin is busy riping what was left of the hand off of him and throwing it as far away from him as possible, but he doesn’t miss the throaty groans and wet squelching sounds coming from the rubble.

He isn’t sure when he started crying, but it’s difficult to make out his rescuer through his tears. He rubs at his eyes, taking strength from Ai standing firmly next to him.

“Onii… chan?” Her voice is disbelieving and faint, but Rin would recognize it anywhere. His head flies up as he blinks rapidly, clearing his vision.

It’s been nearly a year since the last time he saw his little sister. She and their mom had seen him off at the airport for the summer games, smiles and congratulations, promising their own flight would get them there on time for the opening ceremonies.

She stands before him now, blood crusted axe in one hand, little lightning streak scars over a side of her face. She’s gaping at him as much as he’s surely gaping at her.

“Gou?” She’s on him in a heartbeat, knocking him back down in the dirt. Her hands curl in the front of his jacket and he holds her as if she might turn to smoke if he isn’t strong enough. He’s crying again, but Gou is real and alive and kind of crushing him and it’s the best he’s felt in months.

“You’re here! I can’t believe it, Oniichan, you really came back!” She gets out, crying and laughing. Rin chokes out a laugh of his own.

“Of course I did,” he manages. “I came as soon as I could.” He doesn’t let go of her, isn’t ready to.  

“It’s ah, it’s really good to see you again, Gou-san,” Ai says. Rin’s world had narrowed to having his sister, his _living, breathing_ sister back and he’d almost forgotten Ai was there too.

“Get down here,” he says. Gou laughs into his chest before shooting up and looking around the corner.

“You too! It’s safe!” she calls. Ai crouches down to them and they follow Gou’s eyes. Was it one of the Iwatobi guys? Rin is going to kick their ass if they’ve been letting Gou face the danger alone like that.

There’s movement and both Rin and Ai have to look not up, but down as a tiny figure timidly comes around the corner. Dark hair pulled back in a messy braid, it’s been even longer since Rin has seen her.

“Ran,” he says. Her big eyes watch them silently, as she gets closer, knuckles white on her tiny hands wrapped around a club. She holds her head stiffly and Rin is sure she’s trying not to cry.

_“Rin-nii,”_ she sobs, finally flopping down on him next to Gou.

“Where’s Oniichan?”

****  
  


It's four days before he finds anything. It's four days of sleeping in a worn out old sleeping bag under the early spring sky. It's four days of hiking away from Iwatobi and checking out every faint excuse of a driveway off the main road. It's four frustrating days of coming up empty handed, abandoned cars and houses all blurring together before he finds anything promising.

Hidden behind an overturned van so you would miss it if you weren't on foot and looking, which luckily Rin was, there was an entrance off the road that wasn't quite overgrown. At some point, it was probably well used, but now it's nearly unidentifiable from the others Rin's tried, and yet...

When Rin tries to peer down the lane he goes cold. There was _something_ there, without a doubt. His knuckles go white around the walking stick he'd grabbed just in case and he swallows. He checks his phone and isn't reassured by the blinking red battery indicator. Everything is telling him to move on, to go home and regroup, or at the very least come back in the morning.

The wind shifts and blows right through him, and his body goes stock still when something wafts past his nose. _Smoke._ He can't believe it. He rapidly looks up and down the road, but can't find a source. Slowly, he looks back down the lane, it somehow even more ominous than before.

He tries to convince himself the goosebumps raising over his arms are from the wind, and takes a step off the road.

He walks carefully, keeping his eyes wide in case he's not alone down this path, but as the meters pass he relaxes by increments. The walk itself is easy, the driveway smoothed flat from the years of travel by car that it must have had, before. The forest doesn't quite manage to swallow it up, even though Rin can see places where it's clearly tried. The canopy doubles as a relief from the wind, and Rin finds himself paying less attention to his walk and more to the quiet beauty in the forest.

He makes a corner and the road widens out, and he passes a curious patch of earth next to the lane that isn't covered in undergrowth like the rest. It wasn't fresh, but it was almost like someone had been working on that part of road, turning the dirt up and packing it back down. _Widening it so cars can pass?_ He wonders. All of the road he'd been down so far had only been wide enough for one car after all.

When he passes the fifth spot of interrupted earth he goes rigid, his throat going dry and tight. Afraid that he's right, he looks over at the spot slowly, not daring to breathe. There's a spot of color on the bare earth, and Rin's creeping closer to it before his mind can catch up and stop him.

_Flowers._

He's between the fifth and sixth space when the crushing realization sinks in. A small handful of flowers rest on the crest of the pile of dirt, suddenly and irrevocably identifiable as a grave. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as he quickly surveys the rest of the little plots, only to find them in a similar fashion. _Graves_. He was walking through _unmarked graves_.

His stomach lurches and he stumbles back to the safety of the road before breaking into a run further into the forest. He squeezes his eyes shut as he runs, hating that he counted seven before he could close the sight from his mind. He gets around another turn in the road before he slows down and belatedly realizes he's lost his walking stick- and only weapon- somewhere along the way.

He stops to catch his breath from his sprint and think about his options. He could go back, get his stick, go find an abandoned car or something moderately safe to spend the night in and try again in the morning. But that would involve going past the graves again, and Rin can feel himself paling at the thought.

A little breeze brushes his hair out of his face and that has-to-be but can't-be smell of smoke hits him again. He stands up straighter and looks down the road. His other option is simple, keep going. Mentally he gives himself a shake. It's not like him to give up, and he's sure as hell his friends wouldn't give up on _him_ if it was the other way around. He puts one foot in front of him and follows it with the other, both feeling too heavy to lift.

****  
  


It's dusk when Makoto hears the crash coming from the road. He's moving before he can think anything of it. The deer that occasionally wander around the farm are more graceful than that, and everything else was too small to make so much noise.

Everything besides other humans, alive or dead.

He's got the old rifle slung over his shoulders as he flies out to the boarded up bit of fence in front of the house. He can't remember how long its been since they wrenched the door off one of the burned out trucks out on the main road and lashed it the existing fence to make a barrier against intruders, but as a slim figure appears around the corner he's glad they went through the effort.

It's a man, as far as he can tell, but he can't make much else out in the twilight without his glasses. He crouches and rests the barrel of his gun on the barricade, taking careful aim at the stranger's head as he grits his teeth. He hates taking them out with head shots, but it was better for everyone if he could get them down in one hit.

He doesn't think the man's seen him yet, but Makoto still can't tell if he's alive or not, so he holds his fire. Haru was probably still on the bank of the river that sprawled out in the woods behind the house, and Sousuke was somewhere in the barn. If he yelled, they'd both hear him and come immediately, but it would also attract the attention of whatever was wandering towards him. Makoto grinds his teeth and tries to make a decision.

The man comes to a halt less than ten meters away, and Makoto's fairly certain he's been seen. He stands up from his crouch and keeps the rifle level at the outsider's head.

“Hands up!” he yells. The stranger moves as if he's underwater, slow and heavy limbs. Makoto still can't decide if he's alive or not, but there's no need to stay quiet now. He takes a deep breath.

_“Intruder!”_ he yells, keeping his eyes on him. His hands are finally up, but Makoto has been through too much to be lax about their safety, and he keeps his gun on him even when he hears Sousuke barrel through the barn and up behind him.

“Sousuke, can you tell?” he asks. The stranger hasn't moved, but Makoto won't look away and give him an opening. He's waiting for Sousuke to tell him if he's alive or dead, but Sousuke slides in next to him silently.

“Sou?” he tries again. The stranger's arms waver and Makoto raises his gun from where it had lowered, back on alert. He's putting the slightest pressure on the trigger now, ready to fire at a moment's notice if he has to. A sound breaks from the stranger and it goes through him like a current. It happens again and Sousuke's warm hand rests on Makoto's arm, gently lowering the barrel.

A broken sob travels across the stale air between them and the outsider, and Makoto looks to Sousuke, both of them recognizing that they’re hearing something familiar. Something they know.

Haru's boots crunch behind them as he runs up to join them, but they stop abruptly as the next sob wobbles across the air.

“Impossible,” Makoto catches Sousuke mutter under his breath, amazed eyes still fixed on the newcomer. Makoto steps closer to him, rifle still lowered but still ready.

“What is it?” he asks, low enough to not be overheard.

_“Rin,”_ Haru says, voice weak. Makoto whips back around to look at the intruder, finally realizing the red of his hair isn't a hood. That his arms aren't shaking from infection, but from the loud sobs wracking his body and the effort of holding himself up.

Makoto drops the gun and Rin sinks to his knees. The three of them don't say a word before all of them are running, Sousuke scooping Rin up before the others can make it to him. Rin is crying openly by the time they make it to him, words jumbling and melting together when he tries to speak. Makoto and Haru join them, the three of them wrapping Rin up in their arms as tightly as they can. _Rin’s alive_ , Makoto thinks wildly, tears pricking the back of his eyes and spilling over. _Rin is alive._

“How?” Haru asks, cupping Rin's face with his hands, his own eyes damp. Rin clings to them and falls into laughter when he can't get the words out. Makoto joins him first, the relief in his voice edging out the near hysteria in Rin's, and Sousuke and even Haru soon join them.

“I knew you were alive,” Rin finally gets out. “I _knew_ , I knew I'd find you.” The determination in his voice catches Makoto in the throat, and he shares a look with Haru and Sousuke before nodding towards the house. The sun had already set, and though it had been months since they'd seen any infected, it was still safer inside.

They lead Rin towards the house and Makoto stoops to pick up his rifle where he'd dropped it. Rin looks at him warily when he slings it over his back.

“Sorry for aiming at you,” Makoto says. He feels the weight of the cold metal on his back and feels  nauseous at how close he had come to pulling the trigger. Rin’s smile is frail as he shakes his head.

“S'no problem, you wouldn't have shot me anyway,” he says. Sousuke shifts uncomfortably and Makoto smiles back weakly.

“Sorry,” he says, and means it. Rin shrugs it off but Haru shoots him a knowing look. Makoto breaks eye contact first, and hold the door open for the rest of them to slip inside when they get to the old farmhouse.

Makoto had been coming to the Tanaka family farm with his parents since he was a child, and it still feels surreal to him to be living there now. The Tanakas were old family friends on his dad's side, and they ran a little farm outside of Iwatobi, selling whatever produce was in season along with fresh eggs and fish from the river, and Makoto's parents would often make a weekend of driving out and spending the day on the farm before cooking dinner with them and heading home.

Makoto thinks about how he would fall asleep watching the forest and stars zip past against the cold glass window of his parent’s car on the way home. He hadn't been out since he went off to school in Tokyo, but he'll remember the way to the farm for the rest of his life, however long that might be.

Mr. Tanaka had passed while Makoto was still in high school, leaving the elderly but spry Mrs. Tanaka to run the farm and store herself. Makoto wishes he could have helped her, and nods to the picture of her and her husband inside the door as he checks the safety and rests the rifle up against the wall.

“Were you hurt getting out here?” Haru asks quietly and Makoto and Sousuke go rigid. Even now, Haru has that awful bowie knife strapped to his thigh.

“What? Of course not,” Rin says, waving them off. Haru’s eyes flit over to them, and Makoto smiles reassuringly at him. _Rin would tell us_ , he thinks, and Haru softens and seems to understand.

“Thank god,” Sousuke says, exhaling. Rin looks back at them and quirks an eyebrow. It would look mischievous if his eyes weren’t still puffy and red from crying.

“You guys don’t know yet, do you?” Rin says, little bits of excitement tinging his voice. Sousuke and Makoto exchange looks with Haru, and it’s clear that whatever it is, no, they don’t know what he’s talking about either.

“Know what?” Makoto prompts. Rin is grinning now, slivers of teeth peeking out between his lips.

“That’s why you’re all still holed up out here- why I couldn’t find you- It makes sense, really, and I _knew_ -”

“Rin,” Haru stops his rambling, and Rin smiles broadly at them.

“It’s over,” he says, like it’s the most amazing thing he’s ever heard. The three of them look at each other again, still confused.

“You guys, it’s over! It’s _done_. You can come back,” he says, bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. “There are no more infected.”

Sousuke’s bat falls limply from his hands, hitting the floor with a _thump_ dwarfed by the blood rushing in Makoto’s ears.

_There are no more infected._ It echoes in his head, each word accented by the beat of his heart. Was that even possible? He sits heavily at the table, worried his legs won’t hold him if he tries to keep standing.

“Makoto?” Rin’s voice sounds like it comes through water. Haru sits next to him and twines their arms together to get to his hand, and Makoto is grateful to lean against him. Sousuke puts a hand on his shoulder and clears his throat, clearly coming to terms with it as roughly as Makoto is. _After all_ , Makoto thinks bitterly, _he has even more blood on his hands._

“Rin.. Can you say that again?” he says.

****  
  


They can’t sleep, after. Rin had happily told them everything he knew, even dug out his phone to show them, only to find the battery had finally died on him. He assures them that the infected are no longer a threat- they had finally started their second death sometime during the winter, and as spring moves steadily into summer, the sightings have all but dropped off entirely.

None of them ask him about other survivors as they tell him, briefly, about trekking out to the farm once they’d determined staying in Iwatobi too dangerous. They don’t mention the graves they’re sure Rin must have seen on his way up, and Rin carefully doesn’t ask. It’s Haru’s night to cook, and they celebrate with some of the last of the preserved vegetables and an old bottle of sake from the root cellar.

Makoto drinks a little heavier than he might normally, but Sousuke lets him lean against him and doesn’t hold it against him. He’s thinking of getting drunk too, if he’s honest. But he wants the kind of drunk you black out from and leave the world for a couple of hours, so he only sips at his sake and doesn’t opt for a second cup. When Rin tilts his head back to swallow the rest of his, Haru deftly dumps his sake into Sousuke’s cup. Sousuke makes eye contact, and understands that Haru is saying he’ll be the sober one, that he’ll be the one to protect them if something happens.

Makoto giggles at the sake drooling down Rin’s chin and Sousuke drains his cup.

“Makoto,” Rin says, suddenly serious. All of them turn their attention to him, and Rin looks into his cup.

“I don’t know about anyone else but.. Ran’s safe. She’s waiting for you with Gou,” he says. Makoto doesn’t blink, doesn’t say anything, just slowly closes his mouth. _What about Ren?_ The unvoiced question hangs heavy between them.

“Thank you,” Makoto says finally. Tears are falling silently out of the corners of his eyes, and Sousuke and Haru scoot closer and crowd him. Rin swallows and looks away.

It’s quiet when they finally go to bed.

It’s warm enough that between their extra blankets and Rin’s sleeping bag they can set Rin up downstairs. He commented about how weird it is for a house like this to not have a spare futon, and Sousuke quickly changed the subject as Haru’s hand went automatically to his knife. Rin didn’t need to know _why_ they didn’t have a futon anymore.

Upstairs, they sink into their borrowed bed for the last time, Haru taking his usual spot between him and Makoto. They move around for a while, adjusting and settling in, but after a few moments they go still, their breathing and the sounds of the woods the only real things in the darkness.

“I can’t believe we’re going back tomorrow,” Makoto says quietly. “Is it bad I’m a little afraid to?”

“No.” Haru says quickly. “No one wouldn’t be afraid of going back to hell.” Sousuke agrees with him. He’s a little nervous about what they’ll find when they get back to town, but even more nervous about what they _won’t_ find.

“We’ll stick together, just like always,” he says. His eyes have adjusted enough that he can see the smile on Makoto’s face. “We’ll make it somehow.”

“I know we will,” Makoto says. His cheeks are still a little red from the alcohol. Sousuke reaches over Haru to flick his forehead.

“Go to sleep, we’ll deal with it in the morning,” he says, letting his arm rest over Haru, hand on Makoto’s head.

“Heavy,” Haru complains, but doesn’t shove him off. Makoto laughs and rolls towards them.

“Love you too,” he says.

****  
  


Haru’s eyes open so early in the morning that the sun isn’t up yet, but the dark of the night is already fading. He holds himself perfectly still, listening hard for whatever had woke him. At some point in the night Makoto had curled himself around him, and Haru had rolled to face Sousuke, who lays on his back snoring ever so slightly.

_There._ Something quiet from downstairs. Neither of the lugs around him stir, and it takes a minute for Haru to remember Rin is downstairs, and that’s probably all he heard. He closes his eyes and tries to go back to sleep, sure he’ll need all the rest he can get before the long days ahead of them.

He gives up almost immediately. No matter how he tries, he can’t sleep without going to check and make sure it was just Rin. He needs to know they’re safe. Makoto is the deepest sleeper, so he doesn’t budge when Haru untangles them, but Sousuke stops snoring. When Haru’s free he turns and is met with Sousuke’s sleepy eyes blinking in the grey of the morning.

“It’s okay,” Haru says, leaning in to whisper in his ear. “Just going to check on Rin.”

Sousuke yawns and nods, already moving into Haru’s vacant space for Makoto to wrap around him. Haru lets them sleep, slipping his knife from its place under his pillow and belting it back in place on his leg. He throws on one of Makoto’s, or maybe one of Sousuke’s, sweaters before heading downstairs.

He’d learned where the creaks and groans in the floor were long ago, and his bare feet don’t make any sound unless he wants to. He goes down the stairs silently, peeking around to see if Rin was still in his makeshift bed.

It’s empty but still warm when Haru walks up and presses his palm against the pillow. He can see the bathroom door is open, empty inside. He lets out a breath. The front door is cracked when he sees it, so he opens it quietly and heads out.

He’s happy for his sweater when the chill of the morning hits him. He takes a moment to close his eyes and inhale. It had rained overnight, and the scent was still heavy on the grass and pine needles. He wonders if he’ll miss this place.

Haru spots Rin easily, crouched down at the corner of the little barn. Haru shakes his head and walks up behind him. He seems to be concentrating hard and Haru considers announcing himself. Briefly.

“What are you doing?” he asks calmly. Rin yells loud enough that Haru is sure if Makoto and Sousuke weren’t already awake, they were now.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Rin hisses through his teeth, flat on his ass where he fell. Haru’s lips twitch at how red his face is, but he manages to hold the laugh in.

“You didn’t answer me,” he says, crouching down next to him. Rin glares at him for good measure but rights himself and brushes the dirt off his pants.

“I was going to make breakfast since I’m such a nice guy, but now I’m reconsidering,” he says. Haru only blinks at him, so Rin sighs and points down the side of the barn.

“We can’t eat them. Makoto named them,” Haru tells him when he sees the chickens Rin was stalking. “That’s Hana.”

“Unbelievable,” Rin says. Haru shrugs. He’d been pretty good at catching fish in the river, so it wasn’t like he really cared about not eating some scrawny hens.

“I was looking for _eggs_ ,” Rin says, frowning. “I don’t want to _kill_ anything, moron.”

“You know you don’t have to stalk them for that,” Haru says. Rin frowns and Haru stands up, nodding for Rin to follow him inside. He shows him the straw the hens have been roosting in, and Rin smiles when the eggs they find are still warm.

Rin catches Haru almost smiling at him and looks at his feet, suddenly serious.

“We’ll have to find a car or something and come back for them,” Rin says.

“Yeah,” Haru agrees. At the very least, it was a reliable food source. And they were practically Makoto’s pets at this point. Rin leans against the wall of the barn and slides down it, sitting in the straw. Haru mimics him, sitting down next to him.

“Hey, Haru…” Rin trails off, and Haru misses when his eyes dart to his knife before settling back on the eggs in his lap.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

_No,_ Haru thinks immediately. _How could any of us be okay?_ He doesn’t say that though, and just wraps his arms around himself and watches the hens peck around for leftover feed. Miki gets too close to Hana and Suzu comes racing to defend her.

“Is it really over?” he asks finally. None of them had ever considered there could be an _over._

“Yeah,” Rin says firmly. “Haru, I swear to you, it’s over. Japan is in recovery.” Haru just nods.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” Rin asks hesitantly. Haru knows he means the time when it _wasn’t_ over. How could he talk about that with someone who didn’t have to go through it though? Rin wouldn't understand, he _couldn’t_.

“Even if it was just in the river, I got to keep swimming. That helped, I think,” he says. At least on this they can understand each other. “Although it was probably nothing like the pools you spent the last year in.”

Rin looks away and goes quiet, and that was not what Haru expected. if anything, he thought Rin might try and make fun of him or rub in how nice the Olympic pools were. He didn’t expect Rin to bite his lip and avoid his eyes.

“Rin?” Rin snaps out of himself and rubs the back of his neck, laughing nervously.

“Well, yeah. Great pools overseas..” he tries. Haru sees through it with piercing clarity.

“You haven’t been swimming?” Haru gapes. Rin’s eyes go wide and confirm it, and Haru feels his heart falter.

_“Rin-”_

“How _could_ I?! How could I just keep swimming, when I didn’t know if any of you were even _alive?!”_ Rin erupts, cutting Haru off. Haru’s mouth hangs open uselessly.

“My family, my friends- Everyone I ever knew! Every day since I lost contact, all I could think about was how everyone could be- you, Makoto, Sousuke, Gou could be-” Rin’s crying again, and the first tears falling into his shirt push Haru into moving. He slides closer until their legs touch, doesn’t flinch when Rin’s arms wrap around him.

“How could I just act like everything was alright?” he sobs. Haru pats his back consolingly. When he had had time to think about Rin safe and sound halfway across the world, he had only been happy for him. They had never held it against him, but as Rin keeps sobbing into his shoulder, Haru wonders if Rin held it against himself.

“Nothing was alright,” Haru starts. Rin’s crying slows just enough for Haru to know he’s listening.

“Nothing was okay. The things… We _aren’t_ okay,” he says. Rin backs off of him and rubs at his eyes.

“We aren’t okay but… maybe we can be. And we owe it to you, for coming out and finding us,” he says.

“I’ll do everything I can,” Rin says. His tears are gone, and Haru’s impressed he managed all that without breaking an egg. “I want to help you, all of you.”

His eyes burn right into Haru’s and pin him down. “I just want my family back,” Rin says, defeated. “Whatever is left of it.” Haru knocks their shoulders together and doesn’t answer. He can’t tell him it’s all going to be okay, so he doesn’t.

“I’m so happy you guys are alive,” Rin says, barely above a whisper. Haru answers him, his own voice nearly as soft. “Me too.” He lets Rin weigh heavily against him and rests his head on Rin’s shoulder. They sit like that until Rin’s breathing evens out and the eggs in his lap go cold.

****  
  


By the time they make it back inside, Makoto and Sousuke are already up. Sousuke’s sleepily bumping around in the kitchen while it looks like Makoto is busy packing.

“Good morning,” Makoto says cheerfully when he sees them. He seems to be in a better mood, and Haru’s relieved. Anything that can cheer him up these days is worth the trouble, and he knows that getting Ran back will help him more than probably even he knows.

“Morning,” he says back. Rin grins and shows him his eggs, as if he had done something clever to get them, before bringing them to Sousuke in the kitchen. They get to work making breakfast, and Haru leaves them to it. Instead, he moves to help Makoto pack.

“Sleep okay, Haru?” Makoto asks. Haru blows the hair out of his face and looks at him. Out of the three of them, Makoto sleeps the least and worries the most, and he lets him know as much with a look. Makoto laughs and turns back to his bag.

“I’ll be okay,” he says when Haru moves closer. Haru can’t tell if he’s lying, so he folds the blanket on top of Makoto’s pile and hands it to him, waiting. Makoto reaches out to take it and Haru doesn’t let go when he tries to pull it from him.

“I’m nervous, okay?” he says and looks back to make sure the others don’t hear them. “I feel like I’ve got enough energy to run all the way back to Iwatobi.” Haru rewards him by releasing the blanket.

“Don’t try it,” Haru says and Makoto smiles. “Is there any gas left in the generator?”

Makoto tilts his head at that. They don’t use it often, both to conserve fuel and because it was loud and could attract unwanted attention. Makoto and Sousuke had come back in a truck from their last supply run and drained the last of the gas from that, but otherwise-

“The truck probably still runs,” Makoto says, putting it together. Having a working vehicle changes the travel time from a few days to a few hours, and Makoto smiles from ear to ear. Haru sighs and starts folding the next thing.

“Thanks, Haru-chan,” Makoto says, laugh in his voice. Annoyingly, Haru can feel his excitement radiating off of him.

“Don’t call me that,” he says automatically. Makoto laughs and puts his hand in Haru’s hair, mussing it up in every direction. Haru pushes his hand away and smiles when Makoto bounds away, too eager to go check the truck.

Haru’s helping plate up food a few minutes later when they hear the truck rumbling to life outside, Rin lets out an excited whoop before running outside, and Sousuke laughs after him.

“I’m glad Rin hasn’t changed,” he says. Haru watches Rin run all the way to Makoto before jumping on him through the cracks in the boards covering the window and smiles.

“Still an idiot,” he agrees. Sousuke laughs and nods, turning back to the food.

****  
  


Makoto barely touches breakfast, eating only enough to get the taste of gasoline out of his mouth. He’s back to loading the truck and packing everything he can think of before the others finish. He smiles whenever they look at him, but its killing him that Ran is alive and waiting for him, and any minute he can shave off their return trip is important.

He throws another bag in the freshly swept bed of the truck and tries not to think about the rest of his family. He’s assumed the worst about them for so long that hearing even one of them survived was a painful stab in his chest. He doesn’t regret making the choice to move out of the town, it had been the right one at the time for the people he _could_ save, but the possibility that maybe if he had just tried harder he could have taken some of his family with him is tearing him apart.

Sousuke slams a crate down on the bed of the truck and snaps Makoto out of it. Sousuke’s back is to him as he twists back down for the next one, and Makoto leans over to take it from him. They load the truck quietly like that, comfortable even without Makoto’s usual chatter to fill the space. They weren’t really sure what all they would need when they got back to town, but if anything Makoto had made sure they over packed. all the food they had left, the generator, bandages, blankets, clothes- they were taking everything but the chickens, which he had already promised to come back for.

Rin announces himself and Haru joining them just by being too loud as they walk up to the truck. It’s clear from Haru’s face that he’s less than thrilled at Rin’s morning enthusiasm and Makoto and Sousuke smile at each other before Sousuke runs a hand through Makoto’s hair and goes to save Haru. Makoto looks back at the little house that had been their shelter and fills his lungs with forest air. _We’ll stick together and make it somehow_ , he reminds himself.

“You coming?” Sousuke asks him. Rin and Haru have already squeezed themselves in the cab, and Sousuke is waiting for him before he crams himself in the passenger seat. Makoto smiles at him and closes the gate of the bed with a clang.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he says. Sousuke gets in and Makoto grabs the thin padded case with the Tanaka’s old rifle in it from where he’d left it resting against the side of the truck. He swings it over their heads and into the narrow space behind the bench seat without a word and takes the drivers seat. Rin pointedly doesn’t look at him when he does it, but Makoto gets the feeling he’s biting his tongue. He doesn’t blame him; most days Makoto can’t wrap his head around the fact he totes a rifle around either.

Makoto turns the key and the old engine sputters and catches life, and Makoto lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He glances at the others and adjusts the rear view mirror, and Haru presses his thigh into him reassuringly. He shifts into drive and just like that they’re on their way.

They come around the corner and Makoto keeps his eyes forward as they come up on the graves. He isn’t sure what’s going to happen to them now that the world was trying to right itself, but he’s sure it isn’t the last time he’ll see them. Instead of getting swept into his own head about them, he looks over to see how Haru and Sousuke are doing. Neither of them are looking at the graves either, but Makoto can’t blame them.

Rin looks pale and on edge, squeezed between Haru and Sousuke, and Makoto catches Sousuke’s eyes. Sousuke looks at him and lets his arm fall from the back of the seat down loosely over Rin’s shoulders, and Rin nearly jumps at it.

“Don’t worry, it’s no one you know,” he says dully. Haru and Makoto don’t look at him.

****  
  


Rin fidgets in his seat, and Haru can feel every flinch of it. He wasn’t terribly uncomfortable, honestly, squished between Makoto and Rin, and at least he wasn’t crammed against the door like he could see Sousuke was, but it was still far from ideal.

“Sorry,” Rin says, and if he’s apologizing for his car manners or for bringing up the bodies they’ve buried, Haru isn’t sure.

They make it to the main road in stifling silence, and Makoto maneuvers around the broken down van that blocks the view of the driveway to the farm. He remembers when they had moved it there, and he’s glad they left enough room for Makoto to squeeze the truck through.

Makoto and Sousuke had found the truck and brought it back last time they left, but Haru hasn’t been in a car since sometime before the world went to hell. Being back on a highway driving towards town brings a mix of nostalgia and anxiety he never thought he’d feel again. There are other cars on the road, here and there, but none moving.

“I didn’t even know you could drive, but you aren’t half bad,” Rin says to Makoto, laughing a little. Makoto smiles but it breaks somewhere before his eyes.

“Thanks. Dad taught me,” he says. He doesn’t finish his sentence.

“Shit, I’m sorry I just-”

“I know, Rin. It’s okay,” Makoto says. Haru leans on him a little more. They’ve all lost people, but he gets the feeling this trip is going to be hardest on Makoto.

The rumbling of the engine is the only sound in the cab, and Sousuke rolls his window down, as if the wind could blow some of the heaviness off of them.

It’s slow going. Makoto drives carefully, avoiding damage to the road and overturned vehicles, even though Haru can feel his leg bouncing up and down with the energy and urge to stomp on the gas and take them away.

Rin falls asleep between them at some point, and they nearly let out a sigh of relief. Rin slumps against Haru and Haru shifts until he’s as comfortable as he’s going to get. Rin lets out a snore and Makoto and Sousuke barely muffle their snorts when Haru groans at it. Sousuke reaches over and pets Haru’s hair back to pacify him, and Haru lets him.

They don’t believe it when an hour later they come up on a car heading the opposite direction. They blare their horn as soon as they spot Makoto’s truck, and Rin wakes up in time for Makoto to honk back at them. Their arms are all outside the car when they pass, hollering and screaming and it feels like the rush after swimming the last leg of the relay. Rin hollers back at them and Makoto honks happily at them, and even Sousuke stands up to haul himself up out the window and wave and whistle back at them.

They’re almost back to town after they run into the other car, and it’s finally settling in that there really are other survivors, just as excited to be alive and whole as they are. Rin doesn’t fall back asleep, and even Haru finds himself leaning forward and sitting on the edge of his seat as the still familiar outskirts of Iwatobi roll in.

Makoto doesn’t stop until they’re out by the building Rin directs them too, though he’s happy to wave and smile to anyone along the way. The little town is a little more run down than the last time Haru had seen it, but he can already see where efforts have been made to rebuild and make it live-able again.

They’ve already decided to check out Makoto’s and Haru’s houses and decide which would be better to settle into while they figure everything out, but Makoto wanted to get to Ran as soon as possible and honestly, nothing was a higher priority than finding family. Makoto doesn’t even look down the road that would have taken them closer to their houses, and Haru leans on him.

When they get to Rin’s building they can’t get out of Rin’s way fast enough. He all but crawls over Sousuke to get out of the truck, and disappears into the building before the rest of them can get out. The three of them stand in front of their truck, unsure if they should follow him. Makoto and Sousuke had left their weapons in the truck, and Haru can feel the tension when they look into the shadowy entry a head of them. Too many times a doorway just like this one had housed some kind of monster for them to be comfortable with it.

Makoto chews his lip and Sousuke puts his arm on his shoulder and leans his weight on him. Makoto smiles weakly at him so Haru pushes into his free side. He knows better than anyone that sometimes Makoto just needs a little reassurance.

“Thanks,” he says and Haru shakes his head. Something crunches behind them and they whip around, only to watch some kid ride by on a bicycle. They let out a breath and Makoto starts laughing.

“Stupid kid got us,” Sousuke says, laughing a little with him.

“Stupid _bicycle_ , and it only got you,” Haru corrects. Makoto snorts and it’s so good to hear him laughing like this again that Sousuke doesn’t even fight him on it.

“Oniichan?” Makoto goes stiff, laugh dying in his throat. They all turn slowly, and Ran is there wide-eyed, one of her hands covering her mouth and the other one hanging tightly onto Rin’s.

_“Ran,”_ Makoto says, voice thick. He kneels down and holds out his arms and she flies across the dirt into them. Makoto holds her so tight they’d be worried about him hurting her if she wasn’t hanging on just as hard back.

Haru isn’t sure if they’re laughing or crying, but he can’t make out what they’re saying to each other one way or another. Sousuke stands closer to him and Haru hooks his finger in his belt loop. Haru steals a look at Rin and smiles at the few tears springing in the corner of his eyes too.

“Oniichan? Ran?” a second voice flits across the empty lot and Makoto pulls himself out of Ran’s hair to look up and past them. He’s surprised into a laugh, and carries Ran with him when he runs past them to swoop Ren up into his arms too. Ren starts crying and sobbing into his shoulder, and Makoto sinks back down with both of them, definitely crying now as he holds onto them, chanting their names like mantra. Haru turns around and is met with the grinning figures of Samezuka’s former captain and his energetic little brother, and this time Rin runs to join them.

Gou appears from the entry with a phone in her hand, and she smiles and chokes back some of her own tears at the reunions. Sousuke isn’t shy in hugging her off her feet, and she squeals and laughs until he puts her down. She hugs Haru and Haru returns it, happier than he’s ever been to see their manager.

Momo jumps on Sousuke’s back and he doesn’t complain, even if he does toss him off after a minute. Seijurou is just as energetic, even if he controls himself into a fist bump with Sousuke after Rin lets him go. Seijurou holds his hand out to Haru too, and after an encouraging grin from Sousuke Haru curls his fingers and bumps it.

He lets them catch up and steps over to crouch where Makoto and his siblings are still piled on the ground, both of the twins talking too fast and at once while Makoto smiles and laughs with them. They see him and call his name, and Haru smiles at them. They look at Makoto and have one of those _Tachibana only_ conversations, and before he knows it Makoto is grinning at him in the way that Haru knows something is up.

Makoto yanks him down on top of them to wild giggles from the twins, and Haru barely puts up a fight when they tackle onto him. Their little hands are everywhere as they latch him into a hug, and Haru actually laughs when he tries to hug them back. It gives Makoto just enough of a chance to sit up before they swap back to him. Makoto leans down to offer Haru a hand up and Haru wants to laugh at the twins hanging off him like monkeys, but he just lets Makoto haul him up without comment.

“Gou,” he says as they rejoin the group. She looks up and Makoto wraps his arms around her so, so carefully. “I can never thank you enough,” he says, voice weak. Kou’s eyes spill over and she hugs him back.

“It’s good to have you back, Makoto-senpai,” she says. _“Makoto,”_ she corrects a second later and Makoto hugs her harder. Ren tugs on Makoto and whispers something to him and Makoto lets Gou go to face the Mikoshibas but Seijurou beats him to it and clamps his hand on Makoto’s shoulder.

“No need to thank us,” he says and Makoto laughs.

“There’s every need,” he says. “If there’s _ever_ , _any_ thing-”

“Yeah yeah, enough of that already,” Seijurou says, rubbing his neck. "Anyone else hungry?" Momo jumps up immediately, hands shooting into the air.

"Me, me!" He says and Rin shoves him off when he tries to hang off of him.

"Nitori-senpai is bringing food too!" He adds, undaunted. Rin perks up at that and Haru shares a look with Sousuke over Kou’s head.

"Gou-kun, got anywhere we can cook?" Seijurou says with a grin and Kou puts a hand on her hip.

"You can cook but you can't all stay here. I don't have nearly enough room," she says.

"We won't impose, Gou. We're going to check out our houses after, see what's still standing," Makoto says and Haru is standing close enough to get lumped in with him. Kou's eyes go soft at him and like that, they're allowed to stay for lunch, and everyone gets to work to make it happen.

Ai shows up halfway through cooking, arms full with paper bags of non-perishables, and they put him to work as well. Haru’s in charge of cooking the fish he had caught before they left the farm, and already its starting to feel like a lifetime away. Sousuke and Seijurou cook and supervise Ai and Momo as they help any way they can, but it seems like they’re mostly there to make sure no one loses fingers.

Gou's little flat doesn't have a table even approaching big enough for them to all sit at, so everyone loads up plates and lands where they can. Makoto sits on the ground with the twins while Rin sits on the arm of Kou’s armchair and Ai sits on a folding chair next to them. Haru takes the end of the little couch behind Makoto, and he’s relieved when Sousuke plants himself between Haru and the over energetic Mikoshibas.

Somehow, eating with their weird little group doesn’t seem weird at all. It’s louder than it’s been for months with so many people, even if Momo seems to make most of it by himself. But he makes Ran and Ren smile and laugh, and Haru relaxes back against the cushions and lets the conversation settle in around him.

 

 

When Makoto finally decides it’s time to make the trek back to the houses, Haru is the first to volunteer to come with him. He’s curious about the state of his house, but concerned about how Makoto would handle going back more than he could ever care about his empty house. Ran and Ren still won’t let go of Makoto, and Haru knows Makoto doesn’t have the heart to separate them again.

Sousuke volunteers next, and Haru isn’t surprised. Sousuke is just as helpless at following Makoto’s lead as Haru is. Rin follows suit, and Haru can’t raise an eyebrow at that either.

In the end, they all go. Ran and Ren sit in the cab between Makoto and Haru, and the rest of them pile in the bed in the back. They aren’t really far from the little street they had grown up on, and they leave the truck at the base of the hill and start the climb together. Momo runs ahead and Ai chases after him to drag him back when he realizes he doesn’t actually know the way, but Haru hangs back with the Tachibanas. They’re as quiet as him for once, and Haru takes Ren’s hand when he seems unsure. Ren looks up at him and smiles weakly, and Haru squeezes his hand.

The group falls quiet and respectful as the houses come into sight, and Haru finally feels the weight of what they’re facing. A cannonball sinks through his gut, and this time Ren squeezes his hand. Everyone seems to wait for Haru and Makoto to make the first move, and when they look at each other Haru can see the storm in his eyes. He picks up Ren and Makoto picks up Ran, and they head towards Makoto’s house together.

Haru keeps his knife hand free and keeps close to Makoto when he opens the door. He’s been through this door nearly as much as his own, and he’s never been as nauseous under this roof as he is in the first moment crossing the threshold. It’s still light enough that Makoto doesn’t need to turn any lights on for them to move around, but every shadow is a threat.

Ren is rigidly still against him, breathing lightly as his little body strains for any sounds that could mean monsters. Haru recognizes it because he’s doing the same. He squeezes Ren in what he hopes is a reassuring way, and Ren swallows and nods at him. _He’s gotten stronger,_ Haru thinks to himself. Ren would have been crying his eyes out only a year ago.

But then again, all of the Tachibanas have had to get stronger. Makoto walks steadily inside, and Ran keeps her head high as they move through the stagnant air of the house. It’s musty and dirty, and someone has clearly robbed them, but the structure seems undamaged. Haru tries to focus on the building itself, and not all the memories that lay within it. None of it was burned or broken, and he doesn’t see any tell tale dark stains seeping into the tatami, so Haru counts it as a win. Haru lets Ren down and doesn’t miss how close he stays.

“Let’s check upstairs,” Ran says, but Ren shakes his head so Haru goes up with her. It’s more of the same upstairs, dirty and looked through, but intact. It looks like whoever was here was only looking for things to help them survive, and most of the Tachibana belongings remain.

“Ren! It’s safe come on up!” Ran calls abruptly and Haru hides his flinch with a cough. A minute later Ren comes pounding up the stairs, so Haru heads back down, only to find Makoto sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. Haru takes the seat next to him and peeks over his shoulder to look at the paper on the table in front of them.

He only reads the first line before he sucks in a breath and has to look away. Makoto sees him then and smiles, but Haru can see the hurt in his eyes.

“It was still on the fridge. Letter from my parents…” he says. Haru doesn’t know what to say so he doesn’t, but lets Makoto lean his head on his instead.

“Just another minute. I’ll be alright, just give me another minute…” he says.

“Take your time,” Haru says gently. They can hear Ran and Ren shoving furniture around upstairs, and none of their group have intruded yet, so they sit alone like that,  a thousand years away from the rest of the world.

“Thank you Haru,” Makoto says after a few moments. “I’m better now.”

“Are you?” Haru says. Makoto smiles and gets to his feet.

“A little,” he answers honestly. Haru nods and follows him. He calls to Ran and Ren and they come running down the stairs back to him. Sousuke opens the door as they get to it, and Makoto smiles up at him.

Rin smiles brightly as they rejoin the group, and Makoto makes the effort to return it.  

“What did I tell you? You’re safe now, it’s over,” Rin says. He hangs an arm around Kou’s shoulder and grins up with them.  

“No,” Makoto says slowly. Sousuke and Haru step closer to him, and Haru thinks the orange from the sun starting to set washing over him makes him look older and more mature than someone his age has any business to. But, as Haru looks around their ragged little group, he realizes they all look like that, even the twins.

_We'll stick together. We’ll make it somehow._ Sousuke's words echo in Haru's head, and he finds himself smiling up at him and Makoto, despite it all.

“This is only the start.”  

 


End file.
